1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a printer control apparatus and printer control method for allowing a printer to convert a drawing object which is formed by an application program into print information that can be printed.
2. Related Background Art
Hitherto, an operation such that a processing resolution of a rasterization is switched on an object unit basis or on a page unit basis until data is transmitted from a drawing control system (for example, GDI) to a printer driver and an output image is formed is not performed.
For example, in case of executing a printing process on the host side, an application program converts data to be printed into a drawing control system (for example, GDI) command by using a drawing control system (for example, GDI or the like) function. Such a system accumulates data into a relevant command disk, rasterizes the data of one band, and transmits the rasterized data to the printer driver. The printer driver executes an image process to the rasterized data and transmits the print data obtained by converting the data after completion of the image process into a printer control command to the system. The system repeats a process such that the print data is outputted to a printer or the like until the end of one page.
According to a present application to form a document and draw in a data processing apparatus, a data processing function is remarkably improved and the user can form a composite document including a text, a figure (hereinafter, referred to as graphics), and an image. The number of opportunities such that the user prints such a composite document including the text, graphics, and image by a printer increases.
FIG. 15 is a block diagram for explaining a construction of such a kind of print control system. The print control system is constructed by a host (PC) 100 serving as a data source, a printer 102 serving as an output source, and the like.
In the diagram, an application program 103 sequentially transmits formed print job data to a drawing control system 104. The drawing control system 104 converts the print job data into data of a form such that a drawing process can be performed by the printer driver 111 and transmits the converted data to a spooler 105. The data is made up of a logical drawing object and drawing control information for the printer 102. The drawing control system 104 is ordinarily a program at a system level and, for example, the GDI corresponds to it in the Windows (trade name).
The spooler 105 sets an output of the drawing control system 104 into a spool file 108 and notifies a queue controller 106 of a fact that the spool has been completed, thereby allowing a queueing process of a print job to be executed.
The queue controller 106 manages the executing order of the printing process on a print job unit basis. A message informing that the print job has been set into the spool file 108 is received from the spooler 105 and the print job is registered into a print queue. A despooler 109 is activated, thereby allowing an output of the print job to be executed ordinarily from the head (the oldest print job) of the queue.
The despooler 109 extracts a spool file of the print job instructed in the queue controller 106 and transmits the spool file to a printer driver 111.
The printer driver 111 converts the logical drawing object and the drawing control information for the printer 102 which were formed by the drawing control system 104 into physical drawing information and control information which can be recognized by the printer 102 and transmits those information to the printer 102 through an I/O controller 112.
The I/O controller 112 performs a data buffering and an I/O control to transmit a data stream formed by the printer driver 111 to the printer 102.
A user interface 901 is an interface for the user to instruct an operating mode of the printer driver 111. When the printing process is started, the application generally opens a dialog box. In the dialog box, the user instructs an operating mode and parameters concerning the other driver processes.
As a processing resolution of the printer driver 111 and a resolution provided for the printer 102, hitherto, the driver process is ordinarily executed at a resolution of a printer engine.
However, in association with the realization of a high resolution of the printer engine in recent years, in the driver process of the inherent resolution, the processing time is long and in data such as image data or the like which needs a gradation, it is difficult to perform a print expression at a high quality in a mere high resolution processing.
Therefore, there is considered a method whereby a low resolution processing is executed for the image data by a raster process of the driver and a gradation expression is effectively used by a density pattern method or the like in order to realize a high resolution of the printer engine.
For example, assuming that the printer engine has a resolution of 600 dpi, the raster process and printing of 600 dpi are executed in case of the print job printing of a text and graphics in which an edge quality is needed, and the printer driver executes the raster process at 300 dpi in case of the print job of image data in which a gradation expression is necessary, thereby enabling a gradation expression to be executed every block of (2xc3x972) dots of the printer engine. In this instance, although a raster-unit resolution can be switched every print job by the user interface 901, since the processing resolution and a rasterization bit length are fixed every print job, they cannot be switched in the job.
However, in the printer driver which is assembled in the above conventional data processing apparatus, in the case where a composite document including text, graphics, and image in the same page is printed, in order to obtain a high precision image output, it is necessary to process at a high resolution. There is, consequently, the following problems.
That is, when the composite document including text, graphics, and image is printed and an image forming process is executed at a high resolution, it takes a time for the image process, so that the print processing time is long.
Therefore, in order to reduce the print processing time, the process can be executed by setting the resolution of the data to be rasterized to a normal resolution (about xc2xd of the maximum resolution on the printer side). However, even if an image is processed at a normal resolution, in case of forming an image on the printer side, a priority is given to gradation and a problem is small.
However, according to the process at the normal resolution, a deterioration in image quality of text/graphics cannot be avoided and only a print result in which a jaggy of text/graphics is conspicuous is derived.
As mentioned above, in case of print processing a page in which drawing objects of different attributes mixedly exist in the same page, there is a problem such that it is impossible to satisfy a requirement of the user such that he wants to obtain an image with good gradation and to obtain text/graphics at a high resolution.
In the foregoing conventional apparatus, the data formed by various applications is constructed by a plurality of drawing objects in the same print job and each object has an attribute of any one of the image, graphics, and text. In this case, the apparatus is designed in a manner such that the drawing objects are rendered at the same resolution in the same job and its expressing means (color converting process, rendering resolution, dot pattern formation) is preferably balanced even in any object attribute.
The conventional apparatus, however, has the following problems (1) to (3).
(1) If the whole print job is rasterized at a high resolution in order to keep a quality of text, the rasterizing process itself requires a time for a color converting process and a use amount of a memory increases.
(2) When the raster process is executed at a low resolution while importance is preferentially paid to a processing speed and a gradation, an edge quality deteriorates and a jaggy is conspicuous in the text or the like.
(3) There are two kinds of drawing objects of a drawing object in which important is paid to the resolution (text, graphics) and a drawing object in which a priority is given to the gradation (color expression). In case of the print job in which those objects mixedly exist, it is difficult to reconcile its expressing quality and a processing speed.
The present invention is made to solve the above problems and it is an object of the invention to provide a printer control apparatus and printer control method in which in case of printing a composite document including a text, graphics, and an image in a same page, attributes of drawing objects received from a drawing control system are analyzed and a resolution processing of each drawing object is switched on an object unit basis or on a page unit basis, so that a printer can print at a high speed from drawing data including each drawing object of image, text, and graphics in the same page, and print information in which a picture quality hardly deteriorates can be formed, and to also provide a memory medium in which programs which can be read out by a computer have been stored.
The invention is made to solve the above problems and it is an object of the invention to provide a printer control apparatus and printer control method in which by switching a resolution processing of a printer driver in accordance with an attribute of a drawing object of each page in print data, the resolution processing which is optimum to the attribute of the drawing object of each page is executed by the printer driver, and an image output in which a gradation function on the printer side can be most effectively used and a high quality output of a character, a figure, or the like can be reconciled, and to also provide a memory medium in which programs which can be read out by a computer have been stored.
According to the invention, there is provided a printer control apparatus for discriminating each drawing object in print data which is formed by a data processing apparatus and for forming print control information which can be analyzed by a printer, comprising: a plurality of drawing processing means for rasterizing at different resolutions on the basis of the drawing objects in the print data which is formed by the data processing apparatus; and discriminating means for discriminating attributes of the drawing objects in the print data which is formed by the data processing apparatus and for discriminating a kind of resolution processing of each drawing object, wherein any one of the drawing processing means is selected every drawing object on the basis of the discrimination result of the discriminating means and a resolution processing is switched.
According to the invention, any one of the drawing processing means has a high resolution mode to rasterize the drawing object at the maximum resolution at which the printer can perform a drawing process.
According to the invention, any one of the drawing processing means has a normal resolution mode to rasterize the drawing object at a resolution lower than the maximum resolution at which the printer can perform a drawing process.
According to the invention, when the discriminating means determines that the attribute of the drawing object in the print data which is formed by the data processing apparatus indicates bit map data, any one of the drawing processing means rasterizes the drawing object in the normal resolution mode.
According to the invention, when the discriminating means determines that the attribute of the drawing object in the print data which is formed by the data processing apparatus indicates vector data (e.g. text or graphics), any one of the drawing processing means rasterizes the drawing object in the high resolution mode.
According to the invention, when any one of the drawing processing means rasterizes the drawing object in the normal resolution mode, a predetermined high resolution modifying process is executed to the rasterized data.
According to the invention, when each drawing processing means rasterizes the drawing object in the normal resolution mode or high resolution mode, print data to be transferred to the printer is formed on the basis of the rasterized data in which each rasterized data is added.
According to the invention, there is provided a printer control apparatus for discriminating each drawing object in print data which is formed by a data processing apparatus and for forming print control information which can be analyzed by a printer, comprising: a plurality of drawing processing means for rasterizing at different resolutions on the basis of the drawing objects in the print data which is formed by the data processing apparatus; and discriminating means for discriminating attributes of the drawing objects in the print data obtained from the data processing apparatus on a page unit basis and for discriminating a kind of resolution processing every page, wherein any one of the drawing processing means is selected every page on the basis of the discrimination result of the discriminating means and a resolution processing is switched.
According to the invention, any one of the drawing processing means has a high resolution mode to rasterize the drawing object at the maximum resolution at which the printer can perform a drawing process.
According to the invention, any one of the drawing processing means has a normal resolution mode to rasterize the drawing object at a resolution lower than the maximum resolution at which the printer can perform a drawing process.
According to the invention, when the discriminating means determines that the attribute of the drawing object in the print data which is formed by the data processing apparatus indicates bit map data, any one of the drawing processing means rasterizes all of the drawing objects in the same page in the normal resolution mode.
According to the invention, when the discriminating means determines that the attribute of the drawing object in the print data which is formed by the data processing apparatus indicates vector data (e.g. text or graphics), any one of the drawing processing means rasterizes all of the drawing objects in the same page in the high resolution mode.
According to the invention, when any one of the drawing processing means rasterizes the drawing object in the normal resolution mode, a predetermined high resolution modifying process is executed to the rasterized data.
According to the invention, when each drawing processing means rasterizes the drawing object in the normal resolution mode or high resolution mode, print data to be transferred to the printer is individually formed on the basis of each rasterized data.
According to the invention, there is provided a printer control method of discriminating each drawing object in print data which is formed by a data processing apparatus and forming print control information which can be analyzed by a printer, comprising: a discriminating step of discriminating attributes of the drawing objects in the print data which is formed by the data processing apparatus and discriminating a kind of resolution processing of each drawing object; and a drawing step of drawing each drawing object at a different resolution every drawing object on the basis of the discrimination result.
According to the invention, there is provided a printer control method of discriminating each drawing object in print data which is formed by a data processing apparatus and forming print control information which can be analyzed by a printer, comprising: a discriminating step of discriminating, on a page unit basis, attributes of the drawing objects in the print data which is formed by the data processing apparatus and discriminating a kind of resolution processing of each drawing object; and a drawing step of drawing each drawing object at a different resolution every page on the basis of the discrimination result.
According to the invention, there is provided a memory medium in which a program which is used in a computer for discriminating each drawing object in print data which is formed by a data processing apparatus and for forming print control information which can be analyzed by a printer has been stored, wherein a program which includes a discriminating step of discriminating attributes of the drawing objects in the print data which is formed by the data processing apparatus and discriminating a kind of resolution processing of each drawing object and a drawing step of drawing each drawing object at a different resolution every drawing object on the basis of the discrimination result and which can be read by the computer has been stored in the memory medium.
According to the invention, there is provided a memory medium in which a program which is used in a computer for discriminating each drawing object in print data which is formed by a data processing apparatus and for forming print control information which can be analyzed by a printer has been stored, wherein a program which includes a discriminating step of discriminating, on a page unit basis, attributes of the drawing objects in the print data which is formed by the data processing apparatus and discriminating a kind of resolution processing of each drawing object and a drawing step of drawing each drawing object at a different resolution every page on the basis of the discrimination result and which can be read by the computer has been stored in the memory medium.
According to the invention, there is provided a printer control apparatus for inputting print data including a drawing object of a different attribute from a predetermined application program and for converting the print data into print control information of a different resolution which can be processed by a printer, comprising: detecting means for analyzing the print data and detecting the attribute of the drawing object of each page; and control means for switching a resolution mode to draw every page on the basis of the attribute detected by the detecting means.
According to the invention, when the detecting means detects a raster image object as a drawing object, the control means switches the resolution mode to draw to a normal resolution mode.
According to the invention, when the detecting means detects an object, as a drawing object, other than a raster image object, the control means switches the resolution mode to draw to a high resolution mode.
According to the invention, there is provided a printer control apparatus for inputting print data including a drawing object of a different attribute from a predetermined application program and for converting the print data into print control information of a different resolution which can be processed by a printer, comprising: accumulating means for analyzing the print data and for accumulating areas of rasterized image objects of respective pages; discriminating means for discriminating whether the area value of the rasterized image objects accumulated by the accumulating means exceeds a predetermined threshold value or not; and control means for switching a resolution mode to draw every page on the basis of the discrimination result of the discriminating means.
According to the invention, there is provided a printer control apparatus for inputting print data including a drawing object of a different attribute from a predetermined application program and for converting the print data into print control information of a different resolution which can be processed by a printer, comprising: accumulating means for analyzing the print data and for accumulating areas of rasterized image objects of respective pages; area discriminating means for discriminating whether the area value of the rasterized image objects accumulated by the accumulating means exceeds a predetermined threshold value or not; color discriminating means for analyzing the print data and discriminating whether a print color of the rasterized image object of each page is a color other than a specific color or not; and control means for switching a resolution mode to draw every page on the basis of the discrimination result of each of the area discriminating means and the color discriminating means.
According to the invention, the specific color is the same as a developing color of the printer.
According to the invention, when the resolution mode is switched to the high resolution mode, the control means sets a bit length of each pixel of the raster process to a short length.
According to the invention, there is provided a printer control method of inputting print data including a drawing object of a different attribute from a predetermined application program and converting the print data into print control information of a different resolution which can be processed by a printer, comprising: a detecting step of analyzing the print data and detecting the attribute of the drawing object of each page; and a switching step of switching a resolution mode to draw every page on the basis of the detected attribute.
According to the invention, there is provided a memory medium in which a program which can be read out by a computer for inputting print data including a drawing object of a different attribute from a predetermined application program and for converting the print data into print control information of a different resolution which can be processed by a printer has been stored, wherein a program which includes a detecting step of analyzing the print data and detecting the attribute of the drawing object of each page and a switching step of switching a resolution mode to draw every page on the basis of the detected attribute and which can be read by the computer has been stored in the memory medium.
According to the invention, there is provided a printer control method of inputting print data including a drawing object of a different attribute from a predetermined application program and converting the print data into print control information of a different resolution which can be processed by a printer, comprising: an accumulating step of analyzing the print data and accumulating areas of rasterized image objects of respective pages; a discriminating step of discriminating whether the accumulated area value of the rasterized image objects exceeds a predetermined threshold value or not; and a switching step of switching a resolution mode to draw every page on the basis of the discrimination result.
According to the invention, there is provided a memory medium in which a program which can be read out by a computer for inputting print data including a drawing object of a different attribute from a predetermined application program and for converting the print data into print control information of a different resolution which can be processed by a printer has been stored, wherein a program which includes an accumulating step of analyzing the print data and accumulating areas of rasterized image objects of respective pages, a discriminating step of discriminating whether the accumulated area value of the rasterized image objects exceeds a predetermined threshold value or not, and a switching step of switching a resolution mode to draw every page on the basis of the discrimination result and which can be read by the computer has been stored in the memory medium.
According to the invention, there is provided a printer control method of inputting print data including a drawing object of a different attribute from a predetermined application program and converting the print data into print control information of a different resolution which can be processed by a printer, comprising: an accumulating step of analyzing the print data and accumulating areas of rasterized image objects of respective pages; a first discriminating step of discriminating whether the accumulated area value of the rasterized image objects exceeds a predetermined threshold value or not; a second discriminating step of analyzing the print data and discriminating whether a print color of the rasterized image object of each page is a color other than a specific color or not; and a switching step of switching a resolution mode to draw every page on the basis of the discrimination result of each of the first and second discriminating steps.
According to the invention, there is provided a memory medium in which a program which can be read out by a computer for inputting print data including a drawing object of a different attribute from a predetermined application program and for converting the print data into print control information of a different resolution which can be processed by a printer has been stored, wherein: a program which includes an accumulating step of analyzing the print data and accumulating areas of rasterized image objects of respective pages, a first discriminating step of discriminating whether the accumulated area value of the rasterized image objects exceeds a predetermined threshold value or not, a second discriminating step of analyzing the print data and discriminating whether a print color of the rasterized image object of each page is a color other than a specific color or not, and a switching step of switching a resolution mode to draw every page on the basis of the discrimination result of each of the first and second discriminating steps and which can be read by the computer has been stored in the memory medium.